A blog dedicated to striving for improvement without getting crazy.

Tag Archives: kale

Can you believe it’s already DECEMBER FIRST?! Yeah, neither can I. Time has been flying by lately… Seems like Halloween was just yesterday! I’m not ready for it all – Christmas music, Christmas shopping, Christmas anything… Maybe once we get some snow I’ll come around. Regardless, this happened:

Now, to recap yesterday…

EATS:

Breakfast, 10-ish a.m.

Sprouted grain toast with Greek yogurt sweetened with 2 packets of Splenda, enjoyed with an Americano. Breakfast of champions.

Doesn’t look too appetizing, but I promise it’s delicious! Sprouted cinnamon raisin bread with raisins, covered with sliced banana and peanut fluff. Enjoyed while working. (Seems to be a pattern…)

Workout: 4:30-6 p.m. (or so)

Put in a solid hour on an elliptical with an adjustable incline and resistance. Warmed up for 5 minutes, then I did sprint intervals during the chorus of every song that played. A friend joined me there for the last 20 minutes, which helped the time go faster. The two of us then topped it off with 30 minutes on the “moon bounce” elliptical to spend some more time together and for me to attempt to blunt the caloric damage done the day before. Did some vanity lifting, as well, to make myself feel better about wearing a short-sleeved dress. It felt GREAT to sweat it out, and the 90 minutes flew by! The lifting was pretty pointless, though. Quality strength training has been lacking lately. Might incorporate a strength circuit in my workout this afternoon. Julie always has such great ideas for strength and cardio circuits… I might have to borrow one of her workouts!

Dinner: 8ish p.m.

Made one of Tina’s two-ingredient pancakes with extra egg whites, cinnamon, and a bit of vanilla extract in the mix, and topped it with peanut fluff and copious amounts of sugar-free maple syrup. Enjoyed with lots of water in front of the TV while talking to my mom.

After dinner, I met up with a friend at her house before we headed out to one of my/our favorite local places for a glass of wine. 6 glasses of wine and a (safe, I promise you) drive home later, pretzels covered with peanut fluff, Golden Grahams, and chocolate chips sounded like a great idea. 😦 Obviously, they were not. I was up eating until 5 a.m., and woke up to this:

Not.cool. Last time I weighed myself (a month ago), I weighed in at 151. This is disappointing, to say the least.

It’s making me wonder whether I’m ready to begin this revolution… But I’m telling myself that it’s a new month, new day, and a new chance to make progress. 🙂

In that spirit, here’s today’s brunch, which took place from 11:30-12:25, while typing this post:Pile of kale leaves topped with a salad my mom threw together (iceberg lettuce, tomatoes, carrots, red cabbage, and bacon bits that I tried to get out of there since I’m a freak and don’t care for bacon), 1T sunflower seeds, 3T of nutritional yeast, lots of fat free Italian dressing, and an egg with some extra whites that I cooked in a mug in the microwave. Who knew I was only 1 minute away from a delicious cooked egg this whole time? It was DELICIOUS. Enjoyed while typing this (super-long) blog post with a reheated Americano left over from yesterday. Also had a cup of grapes while trying to figure out what to eat. I was still full from my late-night pretzel/cereal/peanut fluff/chocolate chips binge. Not a great feeling.

Looking at my recap of yesterday (and this morning!), I’m often eating while working or otherwise distracted. New goal: to eat one meal a day without any distractions. Hopefully some mindfulness will lead me to me make better choices late at night! I’ll keep you posted on my progress. 🙂

Off to run errands to a few of my favorite stores before I go into work! Hopefully I’ll be checking in later with a workout summary and recap of the day.

I’m chalking up my lack of Christmas spirit to the weather. A high of 65 in December in the Midwest?! And they said that global warming was a bad thing…

The weather made for a great weekend, even though I didn’t spend much time out enjoying it. It was nice not to be freezing while bar-hopping on Friday night, but I had to work yesterday night and today late in the afternoon. Driving from my uncle’s to the mall, from the mall to the gym, and the gym to Target with the windows down was fabulous. I should’ve gone for an outdoor run, but I’m a total wimp when it comes to outdoor running. It’s hard, I’m too lazy to gear up, and I tend to get bored. I used to be all about distance running and epic cardio workouts, but these days I’m all about short-and-sweet cardio/strength circuit workouts and interval training.

topped with garlic salt, probably enough to make a cardiologist (and not to mention anyone within a 10-foot radius of my breath) cringe. delicious regardless.

Starbucks was a little slow as I was going through the drive thru pre-work this morning. They forgot to put this baby in the oven:

there’s a (yummy) prize inside!

It’s a spinach & feta wrap!! Best chewable thing on their menu by far.

I may have had to pull around through the drive thru (ironically) and wait for them to bring it to me. It was worth it though – got two free menu items just for being patient and nice! You definitely get more bees (and free drinks) with honey than with vinegar. 😉

I also had three great workouts on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. My legs are feeling quite fatigued right about now from all the lower body work. Not a bad thing at all – means I’m getting stronger, right?

I should really know better – any post-dinner snacking ends up turning into a binge/extended graze. Another goal for the next week – to ix-nay post-dinner snacking.I know I can give it up for just a week! Let’s do this.

THE UGLY

Okay, this may not be the prettiest thing in the world…

Peanut fluff and sugar-free raspberry jelly on sprouted wheat bread.

…but it was damn delicious.

IN OTHER NEWS…

In other non-food-related recaps, I spent a lot of time working, running errands, doing laundry, and generally spinning my wheels this weekend. One of the “chores” I had to do was clean out my personal email inbox this weekend. I came across this post by Janetha at Meals & Moves through Tina’s Saturday Shares post. Gave me a lot to think about, and I definitely pinned two the images she had (the ones with quotes). My mantra for the next week will be “YOU ARE ENOUGH,” and I’m going to print this one…

…and carry it with me and/or hang it up in my office. It’s a nice reminder to be true to yourself – very important for me, since I tend to feed off of others and listen to external cues (rather than my own internal ones) in general. Time to start trusting and believing in myself more.

On that note, I’m off to get some sleep. Can’t wait to get the new week started. I’ve got some fun, exciting plans to look forward to, and a few goals to achieve! 🙂